The Incredibly Diverse World of Orchids

Posted by Robbie on July 22nd, 2010

Orchids are the most diverse group of flowering plants on the planet. They can be found from dry dessert areas to marshy bogs, from sea level to 14,000 foot mountains, and everywhere in between.

The body of orchid information continues to grow every year. New species are discovered, new hybrids created, and the knowledge of existing plants is expanding as well.

The family Orcidaceae has approximately 25,000 species and the number of hybrids is many times that number. Orchids are either terrestrial (plants that grow in the ground), or epiphytic (plants that grow on rocks or trees, not in the soil). The majority of the flowering types that most people associate with the word “orchid” are epiphytes. Of the epiphytic orchids, most of them are found in tropic or sub-tropic environments.

With so many different species, it should come as no surprise that there are some very unusual orchids out there. The smallest orchid in the world belongs to the Platystele genus. It has flowers that are only 2 millimeters in diameter! It was just recently discovered in Ecuador in 2009. The world’s largest orchid is the Grammatophyllum speciosum which can grow to heights exceeding 3 meters and weights of over 900 kilograms.

Australia is home to an orchid species (Rhizanthella) that grows and produces flowers completely underground. It never sees the light of day throughout its entire life cycle.

One orchid that everyone is familiar with but probably never thought of as an orchid is vanilla. It is a climbing orchid that grows throughout the tropics with 65 different species, but only a few of them are used for their extract.

The orchid is of course most famous for its flower and it is the unique flower structure that is the distinguishing characteristic that qualifies a plant as an orchid. On all orchid flowers, one petal is larger than the others. This modified petal is called the lip, or labellum, and it is this lip that makes a flower recognizable as an orchid.

Orchid flowers come in just about every size, shape, and color imaginable. Some plants grow a single flower, others have long sprays (flower stems) that have numerous smaller flowers on them. The most common colors tend to be yellow, white, purple, and shades of pink, but red, blue, and green orchid flowers exist, too. They can be solid, spotted, striped, or a combination. Long and spidery, to round and compact…there are no limits to the variation of orchid flowers.

As more species are discovered in the wild and more hybrids are created in the botany labs, the diversity of orchids, and our fascination with them, will continue to grow.

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About the Author:
Andrew Bartlett has been keeping houseplants and gardens since his early childhood 30+ years ago. Like many people, he is captivated by the beauty and diversity of orchids. Visit his website www.orchidsinfo.com for more orchid information.

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The Incredibly Diverse World of Orchids

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